The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-06-04

office. 1t used to be the practice to en-
ploy the mails in sending forward a
mass of indecent books, pictures, ETC.,
and all that class of publications which
minister to the prurient and depraved
taste. OF course, there was a good
| deal of this stuff in the letters that came
to the Dead-Letter Office, and it was
rather disagreeable duty for a woman
surrounded by men to open letter con-
tanning an indecent picture or an OBJ
scene book, and so the practice was
adopted of employing men at the open
ing table.
AS has been already indicated, the
openers must be persons of character,
for the reason that q great many letters
contain money. When money is found
in the letters, or, indeed. any inclos-
ure, the openers are required to make,
in book provided for the purpose, an
entry of the amount of money found
and the character of the Enclosure, of
whatever kind This record passes
into the hands of other CLERKS, consti-
tuting a system of checks, which expe-
rience has shown to be necessary, and
it is believed that there is no loss
through dishonesty of the employees.
The system has been the growth of
years, and in the few cases that have
occurred in the past of dishonesty on
the part of employees, the weak points
in the system have been brought to
light and remedied. 1t is surprising to
learn how much money is yearly in
trusted to the mails, and. although the
number of such letters that find their
way to the Dead-Lettcr Office is proba-
bly, only small proportion of the en-
tire number mailed, yet last year there
was received at the Office over $31 200
in letters. OF this over 1921, 900 was re-
stored to owners, nearly $4,000 re-
manned in the hands of postmasters
awaiting restoration, and over $4,000
could not be restored and was placed
in the United States Treasury, where it
remains for period of four years, sub
ject to be reclaimed by the owners.
Perhaps the most interesting feature
of the work of the Office is the treatment
of letters which are sent there because
of insufficient or incorrect addresses.
These letters represent for the most
part the carlesSness and the hurry of
the American people. A business man
IN this city, writing a letter to an ac-
quaintanceinP Philadelphia, for example,
dashes off his signature at the close of
the letter, and, while directing the en-
velope, is thinking of the next subject
that demands his attention, and instead
of writing Philadelphia he scribbles off
the word "city," as he does hundred
times day, supposing, of course, that
the majority of his letters are local. He
does this the more readily if his cor
respondents address in PHILADELPHIA
happens to be one of the numbered
streets. When the letter comes to the
Dead-Letter Office it is handed over to
lady clerk, who has referred to her
over a thousand of such letters each
day. By long practice with dealing
with such conundrums the address is
properly amended and the letter is
sent on its way again. So.2e people
drop letters into the officJ without
any address at all, others write the
address so illegibly and with such
disregard for the rules of orthographv
that no one but an expert is able to de-
cipher the meaning. Mistakes of all
kinds are made in addressing letters.
The wrong State is given, or else the
wrong town, perhaps both town and
State are omitted. Some humorous
persons write out the whole address in
rhymed verse, and, like good deal of
more pretentious verse-making, some
times it is possible to ascertain the
authors meaning, and then again the
meaning eludes the most careful study.
When it is considered that the COM
bined carelessness and ignorance of the
entire country has a daily and hourly
opportunity to develop an aptitude for
laundering, it is surprising that the
proportion of such letters is not much
larger than it really is. But when
samples of this part of the mail bag of
the Dead-Letter Office are examined.
1t is surprising to learn that ninety per
cent of the letters of this character
which are received each day and cor
rected are delivered to the persons adj
dressed.
When( etters contain no Enclosures.
either of money or merchandise, and
every method has been exhausted for
returning them either to the writer or
the person addressed, they are bundled
together and sold for waste paper.
There are over 100000 letters and
parcels which are disposed of each year
in this way, and the revenue derived
from the sale is turned into the Treas
ury, together with the money received
in letters for which no owner can be
found. Last year there was nearly
$4,000 deposited in the Treasury on this
account. A visit to the museum of this
office shows the manifold uses to which
the mails are put in the transportation
of matter other than letters. In this
collection, which preserves only the
most notable objects, may be found
boots, shoes, coats, shawls, bed quilts,
hoop skirts, rattlesnakes, horned toads,